Archie Archie is a tool for indexing FTP archives, allowing people to find specific files.

It is considered to be the first Internet search engine

Definition
Archie is a tool which indexes and searches distributed data such as holdings lists of Internet file archives and contents of WWW servers. Its best known application is in indexing anonymous ftp archives on the Internet. It was one of the earliest tools which offered a means of searching for specific items across hundreds of servers on the Internet. Now this database of file archives covers over a thousand servers and some millions of files and the Archie software has migrated from its University base to become a commercial product of Bunyip Information Systems. In its commercial phase, the software has been developed and enhanced, and is now marketed as a general database tool for distributed collections of data, including Web data. However, in the context of network resource tools, it is most important as the system which provides the Internet Archives database.

What is the Internet Archives database?

The Internet Archives database is an index of the contents listings of anonymous ftp archives on the Internet. Archie provides a means of automatically gathering the data from the servers which house the archives, organizing it, maintaining it, and providing a search interface to it. Like other Internet tools, Archie operates on the client-server model. Archie servers co-operate to provide a distributed system of indexing in which each Archie gathers data in its own geographic region. The results are shared to effectively provide a large, searchable Archie index of Internet information, worldwide in scope.

Access
Users can search the Archie database either using the WWW, Telnet, electronic mail, or dedicated Archie client software installed on their desktop machine.

WWW access
For most users, the Web is likely to be the preferred route. It uses software which they are likely to have already installed, i.e. a Web browser, can be queried interactively, and enables ready retrieval of files located through a search. Archie-Web servers make available a Web form in which the user can specify their search term, plus additional parameters. The data is then processed by the Archie server, and a list of hyperlinked hits generated. Retrieval is a simple matter of selecting a hyperlink. Bunyips make available a standard query interface which many Archie servers use. Alternatively, there is the ArchiePlex interface. Both use CGI technology to pass the user's query to the database and to give back the search results to the user.

Telnet access
Telnet access provides a terminal-based means of querying the Archie database. It is made available by a number of Archie servers. When connecting to one of these servers, use the standard login archie. After a banner message the command prompt will appear. Archie provides its own set of commands for querying its database. First-time users should try the "help" command to get started.

E-mail access
E-mail access to Archie is available through a number of E-mail Archie Servers. Users with only email connectivity to the Internet can send Archie commands in an e-mail message to one of these server addresses. The query will be processed and the results sent back to the user via e-mail.

Local client access

Local client software such as WS Archie for the PC or Anarchie for the Apple Mac offers a flexible means of querying the Archie database. Public domain Archie clients are available for: Macintosh, MS-DOS, OS/2, VMS, NeXT, Unix and X-Windows. The clients are available from the archie sites using anonymous FTP, and are in the directories /pub/archie/clients or /archie/clients e.g. ftp://ftp.bunyip.com/pub/archie/clinets.

Coverage
Currently, Archie tracks the contents of over 1500 Anonymous FTP and WWW archive sites throughout the Internet, visiting individual sites at a claimed rate of twice per month. Sites visited hold approximately 6 million files.

Using
Archie is most useful where the exact name (or part thereof) of the desired file is already known. It will search the contents listings of anonymous ftp or WWW archives, treating search terms as exact names, substrings or regular expressions, as case sensitive or insensitive, according to your specification. Additional options for searching may be offered which enable you to specify the maximum number of hits desired, the domain or server on which you would like the search run, whether your search terms should be joined with AND or OR, and other options. The WWW version of Archie provides online Help. Information on using Archie via Telnet, Electronic Mail, and a Local Client is available as a supplement to this document. Accessing Archie via the WWW provides not only an easy to use interface, but also integrated file retrieval through hyperlinked search results. When using Archie via Telnet, Electronic Mail, and some local clients, Archie provides locations only. Retrieving the files needs to be carried out as a separate operation, usually via ftp.

Archie
On almost any subject, there are many sources of information around the Internet. Unfortunately, sometimes finding the location of the information that you want can be difficult. Archie can help you find things related to your topic of interest.

Invoking Archie.
The general method of use is of the form % archie string This will query the archie server for all known systems that have a file named string in their FTP area. Archie will wait, and print out any matches. For example, % archie emacs will find all anonymous FTP sites in the archie database that have files named emacs somewhere in their FTP area. This example query would probably return many directories.

Archie Options.
If you want a list of files that contain emacs anywhere in the filename, you'd use the `c' option: % archie -c emacs The most important options are: -c Search substrings paying attention to upper & lower case. -e Exact string match. (This is the default.) -r Search using a regular expression. -s Search substrings ignoring the case of the letters. -t Sort the results inverted by date. A regular expressions, such as, % archie -r '[xX][lL]isp' uses a matching template, in this case, matching xlisp, Xlisp, xLisp, and XLisp. If you list a single `-' by itself, any further arguments will be taken as part of the search string. This is intended to enable searching for strings that begin with a `-'. For example: % archie -s - -old will search for all filenames that contain the string `-old'.